Antitrust, Competition and Trade

The CMS Antitrust, Competition and Trade (ACT) group is one of the largest specialist competition and trade teams in the world. More than 225 CMS experts advise clients in more than 40 countries worldwide on all ACT matters.

Due to our size and very wide footprint, we are able to deal with all ACT matters irrespective of their geographic dimension. Where necessary we cooperate with long established contacts from our wider network of law firms everywhere in the world.

We are specialists across the full range of Antitrust, Competition and Trade matters. In the last three years alone, we advised clients in more than 750 competition and trade related proceedings. We have expert sub-groups specialising in specific areas within the wider competition and trade field, e.g. for State aid and FDI/Foreign investment screening. We are also well-known as experts in various sectors of the economy. Our renowned sector specialisation encompasses automotive, consumer products/FMCG, construction, digital economy, energy/oil & gas, life sciences, telecommunications/media and transport to name but a few.

Our clients range from many very large multinationals who frequently use our team as their ACT law firm of choice for the entire region (e.g., in Europe), to governments at all levels and also a high number of medium-sized companies.

We use the most up-to-date technical and AI tools to support our business.

We hold a renowned annual EU competition law conference which has become a feature in the Brussels calendar.  We put out regular case law updates on European and international competition and trade developments on our Law Now service.  Our monthly EU law webinars are attended by in house counsel from around the world.  And our group is steered, not just by a management committee of partners but also by an active associates’ group that keeps us innovating to serve clients.

We cover every area of Antitrust, Competition and Trade law:

• Competition and cartel investigations;
• Merger Control;
• Vertical Agreements;
• Horizontal Agreements;
• Abuse of dominance and economic dependence;
• Unfair trading practices (UTP);
• Compliance;
• Private Enforcement;
• State aid and EU subsidies;
• General EU law, free movement of goods, services and capital;
• Foreign subsidies control;
• Trade law and sanctions
• Digital Markets;
• Regulatory.